RUSSIAN  BALI 

.LEN  TERFC 


y 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


WW  MUMI 

unur 


THE  RUSSIAN  BALLET 


A  NNA  PAVLOVA  in  "The  Passing  of  the  Swan."    "She  takes  a  collection 
^-  of  steps  as  a  singer  takes  a  collection  of  notes,  and  calmly  and  gracefully 

phrases   them,   in    the    manner   of   a    bird   beating    the   air   with    its  wings" 


THE  RUSSIAN 

BALLET 


IKS)  i 


z?7  ELLEN  TERRY 


/jP//^  'Drawings  by 


'ii--1 


PAMELA  COLMAN  SMITH 

THE     BOBBS-MERRILL    COMPANY 

New  York  .....  Indianapolis 


HARVARD  COUEbt  LIBRARY 

FROM 

THE   BEQUT  T   OF 

EVERT  JANSEN         '  l/ELL 


19' 


Copyright,  1913 
The  Bobbs-Merrill  Company 


PRESS    OF 

BRAUNWORTH    &    CO. 

BOOKBINDERS    AND    PRINTERS 

BROOKLYN,    N.    Y. 


->  / 

1  '  ' 

LIST  of  ILLUSTRATIONS 

TITLE-PAGE:  Border  and  Design    ....     Page  v 

SCHEHERAZADE 3 

HEADPIECE:  "Les  Sylphides" 5 

SPECTRE  DE  LA  ROSE 7 

PAVILLON  D'ARMIDE 11 

TAILPIECE:  "  Le  Carnaval" 12 

TAILPIECE:  "Spectre  de  la  Rose" 17 

LE  CARNAVAL 19 

LE   CARNAVAL 21 

LE  CARNAVAL 23 

LES  SYLPHIDES 25 

LES  SYLPHIDES 27 

LES  SYLPHIDES 29 

LE  CARNAVAL 31 

LE  CARNAVAL 33 

TAILPIECE:   "Le  Carnaval" 34 

LE  CARNAVAL 3$ 

SPECTRE  DE  LA   ROSE 37 

SPECTRE   DE  LA  ROSE 39 

SCHEHERAZADE 41 

SCHEHERAZADE 43 

vii 

787281 


LIST  0/ ILLUSTRATIONS  (continued) 

TAILPIECE:  "Scheherazade" Page  ^ 

SCHEHERAZADE 45 

TAMAR 47 

PRINCE  IGOR 49 

LES   BOUFFONS  ("Pavilion  d'Armide"  )    ...     51 
NARCISSE S3 


THE  RUSSIAN  BALLET 


THE  RUSSIAN 

BALLET 

Introductory 

THE  Russian  ballet,  at  least  that  section 
of  it  which  M.  de  Diaghiliev,  patron 
and  grand  seigneur  rather  than  agent, 
has  taken  all  over  Europe  during  the 
last  few  years,  and  more  recently  to  America, 
is  now  more  than  a  darling  of  its  own  nation,  a 
naturally  ballet-loving  nation.  It  has  become 
an  international  possession.  In  England  the 
Russian  dancers  have  perhaps  been  acclaimed 
with  more  whole-hearted  fervor  than  else- 
where, because  before  their  coming  the  land 
was  barren.  In  France  and  Italy  they  had 
ballets  of  their  own.  They  have  a  standard 
by  which  they  can  measure  the  visitors  from 
St.  Petersburg.  But  English  audiences,  like 
children  presented  with  a  new  toy,  first  shyly 
wondered  at  the  novelty  of  the  agile  strangers, 


Introductory 

and  then  fell  into  transports  of  enthusiasm. 
Uncritical  enthusiasm  toward  art  and  artists 
is  an  amiable  attitude  of  the  English  once 
they  have  been  gained  over.  And  this  en- 
thusiasm has  a  way  of  persisting.  "The 
English  public  may  be  slow,"  said  a  musician 
who  had  taken  a  long  time  to  win  their 
suffrages,  "but  they  are  damnably  faithful!  V 
If  the  fashion  in  Russian  ballet  should  age 
elsewhere  I  feel  sure  it  will  not  in  England, 
the  last  country  to  adopt  it.  So  these  notes 
by  an  enthusiast  have  a  good  chance  of  being 
seasonable  for  many  years.  Yes,  I  claim 
to  be  an  enthusiast,  although,  perhaps,  the 
fact  that  I  am  not  an  English  enthusiast  but 
one  who  is  half  Irish  and  half  Scotch  makes 
me  more  canny  than  some  of  my  fellow- 
admirers.  I  have  never  opened  my  mouth 
and  swallowed  the  new  ballet  and  all  its 
works  without  thinking.  These  are,  all  the 
same,  impressions  rather  than  criticisms.  And 
the  impressions  are  not  intended  as  an  ex- 
planation of  Miss  Pamela  Colman  Smith's 
pictures    any    more    than    her    pictures    are 


SCHEHERAZADE 


Introductory 

intended  to  be  an  explanation  of  my  im- 
pressions. Her  pictures  surely  speak  for 
themselves.  And  like  the  clerk,  I  need  only 
cry  "Amen11  to  her  eloquent  drawings. 


LES  SYLPHIDES 


Dancing  in   General 

WHAT  is  dancing?  The  Russians 
have  done  much  to  show  us  that 
it  is  something  more  than  sauterie, 
although  they  can  sauter,  or  leap, 
with  the  best.  As  an  actress  I  salute  dancers 
with  the  reverence  of  a  man  for  his  ancestors. 
The  dancer  is  certainly  the  parent  of  my  own 
art,  but  he  has  other  children.  All  arts,  of 
which  the  special  attribute  is  movement,  de- 
scend from  the  dancer.  The  Greek  word 
"chorus"  means  dance,  and  the  Greek 
choruses  were  originally  dances.  It  can  be 
proved  that  dancing  movements  formed  the 
first  metres  of  true  poetry.  Why  do  we  speak 
of  ' i  feet ' '  if  not  because  the  feet  of  the  body 
used  to  mark  the  rhythm  of  inspired  utterance? 


Religious  Dancing 

IT  seems  strange  that  the  Dance  should  have 
almost  everywhere  degenerated  into  some- 
thing base  and  trivial,  while  its  children, 
Music  and  Poetry,  in  spite  of  lapses,  should 
have  preserved  their  dignity  and  beauty. 
It  seems  even  more  strange  when  we  remem- 
ber that  dancing  had  a  religious  origin. 
Among  the  Jews,  as  among  other  peoples, 
dancing  was  constantly  associated  with  the 
ceremonies  of  faith.  In  Christian  churches 
the  choir  was  originally  designed  as  a  place  in 
which  the  chanting  of  hymns  and  canticles 
might  be  conveniently  accompanied  by  rhyth- 
mic movements.  On  feast  days  the  honor 
of  leading  the  dance  was  reserved  for  the 
bishop.  This  is  why  he  was  known  in  those 
days  by  the  name  of  prcesul,  the  is,  he  who 
dances  first.  A  bishop  as  premier  danseur ! 
We  can  hardly  believe  it  now,  yet  why  should 
we  not,  seeing  that  the  movements  of  priest 
and  server  at  mass  have  the  nature  of  a  solemn 
dance?  And  there  are  places  in  France  and 
Spain  where  liturgical  dances  still  exist.  The 
most  notable  is  the  dance  executed  before  the 

6 


SPECTRE  DE  LA  ROSE 


Religious  Dancing 


altar  at  Seville  in  Holy  Week.  I  am  afraid 
that  the  one  that  used  to  take  place  in  the 
choir  of  Saint  Leonard's  at  Limoges,  where, 
at  the  end  of  each  psalm,  the  people  sang  in- 
stead of  the  Gloria  Patri,  "San  Marceau,  pray 
for  us  and  we  will  dance  for  you,"  is.  now 
extinct. 

The  Russian  Rivival 

ALL  who  regard  dancing  seriously,  and 
there  is  nothing  which  should  be  re- 
garded more  seriously  than  an  art  that 
is  to  give  pleasure,  must  be  glad  that  they 
have  lived  in  a  century  which  has  witnessed  a 
very  fine  and  sincere  endeavor  to  restore  the 
dance  to  some  of  its  primal  nobility.  There  is 
much  in  the  results  of  this  endeavor  to  criti- 
cize, there  are  a  few  things  to  deplore,  but  in 
any  refusal  to  recognize  the  magnitude  of 
what  has  been  accomplished,  there  is  prob- 
ably some  pique  that  it  has  been  the  nation 
which  Europe  still  views  as  barbarously  in- 
genuous in  matters  of  art  which  has  reformed 
the  ballet  on  such  refined  and  spiritual  lines. 

8 


The  Russian  Revival 


I  dislike  the  word  "reformed,"  however. 
Reformations  are  generally  tiresome.  Trans- 
formations are  far  better  !  Saint  Francis  trans- 
formed, Luther  reformed  ;  and  the  Russians 
are  with  Saint  Francis  rather  than  with  Luther! 
To  appreciate  the  change  which  has  come 
over  the  Russian  Ballet  we  ought  to  know  a 
little  about  its  constitution.  It  is  and  has 
always  been  subsidized  by  the  state.  The 
Russian  government  supports  schools  of  bal- 
let, where  from  the  age  of  eight  children  are 
given  a  long  and  arduous  training  in  the 
science  of  dancing,  and  from  which  they  are 
drafted  into  the  imperial  ballets  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, Moscow  and  Warsaw.  A  dancer's  first 
appearance  is  generally  made  at  the  age  of 
sixteen,  and  at  thirty-six  his  or  her  career  is 
over.  The  dancers  are  then  retired  on  a  pen- 
sion amounting  to  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  a  year.l  It  is  not  my  intention  to 
give  details  of  this  training.  They  are  written 
in  many  books  by  experts.  But  I  should  like 
to  say  at  this  point  that  one  of  the  leading 
characteristics  of  the  Russian  system  is  the  at- 
tention given  to  male  dancing. 

9 


Male  Dancers 

HAD  the  male  dancers  ever  been  excluded 
from  the  Imperial  ballet  its  fate  would 
have  been  very  different.  The  men  are 
trained  on  the  "  ballon' '  system,  not  on  that 
which  is  known  as  the  " parterre,"  and  it  is 
4 'ballon"  dancing  which  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  features  of  the  Russian  ballet.  After 
we  have  watched  interminable  exercises  in- 
geniously performed  "sur  les  pointes,"  with 
what  relief  have  we  seen  Nijinsky,  perhaps  the 
greatest  "ballon"  dancer  who  has  ever  existed, 
bound  on  to  the  stage,  rise  high  in  the  air, 
descend  slowly  and  with  such  art  that  when 
he  touches  the  ground  he  can  use  it  again  for 
a  still  higher  flight. 

The  presence  of  men  in  the  ballet  has  an 
effect  beyond  the  pleasure  afforded  by  the 
virile  agility  of  their  steps.  It  does  away  with 
the  necessity  for  those  feminine  travesties  of 
men,  known  in  our  pantomimes  as  "principal 
boys,"  who  introduce  an  element  into  ballet 
which  at  its  best  makes  a  disturbing  demand 
on  our  capacity  for  illusion,  and  at  its  worst 
is    a   little    degrading.     What    has    made  the 

10 


PAV1LL0N  D'ARMIDE 


Male  Dancers 


word  "ballet"  a  sort  of  synonym  for  vice  if  it 
is  not  the  idea  that  it  provides  an  opportunity 
for  women  to  attract  admirers — not  so  much 
on  account  of  their  dancing  as  for  the  sake  of 
their  physical  charm  ?  I  think  that  a  mixed 
ballet  has  the  effect  of  concentrating  attention 
on  the  art  of  the  dance  rather  than  on  the 
seductiveness  of  the  dancers.  And  the  free 
and  noble  plastic  of  the  male  dancers  in  the 
Russian  ballet  has  influenced  the  plastic  of  the 
women,  making  it  far  less  sexual  and  far  more 
beautiful. 


LE  CARNAVAL 


12 


Sur  les  Pointes 

1  FRANKLY  confess  that  I  have  a  dislike  to 
ordinary  dancing  on  the  toes.  It  may  be 
because  in  my  youth  it  had  degenerated  into 
something  so  stilted,  distorted  and  unrhyth- 
mical that  it  conflicted  with  all  my  ideas  of 
beauty.  And  when  the  Russians  give  some  of 
their  older  ballets,  such  as  "Giselle,"  which 
bears  the  mark  of  Italian  influence — it  was,  I 
think,  arranged  by  an  Italian  mditre  de  ballet 
— I  feel  that  all  the  improvements  that  the 
Russians  have  made  in  this  so-called  "classical' ' 
dancing  cannot  uproot  my  prejudice,  although 
they  can,  and  do,  modify  it.  The  Russian 
ballerinas  accomplish  the  feat  of  being  fluent  on 
their  toes.  They  do  not  hammer  out  steps — 
it  is  a  false  notion  of  rhythm  that  there  is  a 
hammer-stroke  on  every  strong  beat — but  take 
a  collection  of  steps,  as  a  singer  takes  a  collec- 
tion of  notes,  and  calmly  and  gracefully  phrase 
them,  in  the  manner  of  a  bird  beating  the  air 
with  its  wings,  rather  than  that  of  a  blacksmith 
hammering  on  his  anvil.  Still  I  doubt  whether 
the  Russians  would  have  conquered  Europe 
had  they  come  to  us  merely  as  revivers  of 
classical  dancing  before  it  became  mechanical 
and  ugly.  They  owe  this  revival  to  a  great 
extent  to  Tschaikowsky. 

13 


How  Far  a  Native  Ballet? 

TSCHAIKOWSKY  was  patriotic;  he  wrote 
music  for  the  Imperial  Theatre  ballets,  and 
was  the  first  man  of  any  position  in  Russia 
to  protest  against  the  importation  of  Italian 
dancers  and  Italian  methods.  Undoubtedly 
he  gave  good  counsel  in  advising  a  return  to 
the  French  style  of  classical  dancing,  the  style 
which  was  at  its  best  under  Louis  XIV.  But 
if  the  Russians  had  been  content  to  stop  at  an 
imitation  of  ballet  as  it  was  under  the  "Grand 
Monarque"  they  would  still  be  giving  us  only 
a  dead  perfection  of  steps.  There  is  a  dead- 
ness  about  all  Renaissance  things,  whether  in 
architecture  or  dancing.  What  always  sur- 
prises us  about  the  Russian  ballet  is  its  life. 
This  vitality  came  sweeping  on  to  the  stage 
with  Russian  maitres  de  ballet  such  as  Fokine, 
who  used  tradition,  used  the  technical  per- 
fection of  classical  dancing,  but  would  not  be 
a  slave  to  them ;  with  Russian  composers  such 
as  Borodin,  Rimsky- Korsakoff,  Glazounof, 
Liadoff,  Arensky,  Stravinsky  and  Tscherepnin, 
the  conductor  of  the  ballet;  with  Russian 
artists   such   as   Alexandre   Benois  and  Leon 

H 


How  Far  a  Native  Ballet? 

Bakst;  with  Russian  dancers  such  as  Nijinsky. 
Is  this  ballet,  then,  distinguished  from  all  other 
ballets  by  being  a  native  ballet?  When  we  see 
"Tamar"  or  4 ' Scheherazade ' '  or  the  dances 
from  "Prince  Igor"  we  may  answer,  "Yes.'1 
But  what  about  "Les  Sylphides,"  "Spectre 
de  la  Rose' '  or  ' '  Le  CarnavaP '  ?  Are  they  typic- 
ally Russian?  I  think  they  rather  transport 
us  into  a  country  which  has  no  nationality  and 
no  barriers,  the  kingdom  of  dreams.  The 
Russian  ballet  has  transformed  itself  in  a  little 
over  a  decade  because  its  guiding  minds  have 
been  more  than  national.  The  musicians, 
artists,  dancers  and  ballet  masters  have  de- 
pended more  on  invention  than  on  reality. 
Many  stories  of  widely  different  character  have 
been  drawn  on  for  the  new  ballets,  but  all 
have  been  treated  with  an  imagination  which 
is  neither  the  property  of  a  nation  nor  the 
result  of  patriotism. 


*5 


Personality — and   Nijinsky 

THE  Russians  pride  themselves  on  not 
having  a  "star  system."  Every  dancer 
has  a  chance  of  distinction.  A  good  idea, 
but  personality  will  out,  and  genius  cannot 
be  effaced.  '  I  am  only  the  centre-piece  of 
a  great  mosaic,"  said  Nijinsky  once,  but  in 
his  case  it  is  a  very  big  "only."  Certainly 
the  perfection  of  the  ensemble  9  the  well- 
ordered  movements  and  groups  of  Fokine, 
assist  this  wonderful  young  god  of  the  dance. 
When  Anna  Pavlova,  whom  I  still  regard  as 
the  best  of  the  women  Russian  dancers,  was 
torn  from  her  original  setting,  many  admirers 
of  her  exquisite  art,  in  which  all  the  essentials 
of  the  dance,  noble  gesture,  beautiful  line, 
lightness,  elevation,  that  order  of  movement 
which  we  call  rhythm,  and  perfect  time,  are 
to  be  found,  congratulated  themselves,  "Now 
we  shall  get  more  of  her."  We  got  more — 
and  less. 

Nijinsky,  in  the  years  when  Pavlova  was 

still  in  the  ballet,  was  allowed  to  have  talent. 

Lately   we   have  all   begun   to  use  the  word 

'genius."     Where    does    the    difference    be- 

16 


Personality — and  Nijinsky 


tween  the  things  talent  and  genius  lie 
in  the  huge  personality  of  the  genius? 
used  to  say  of  Henry 
Irving,  who  expressed 
himself  in  a  multiplicity 
of  parts,  that  he  was  al- 
ways the  same  Irving. 
Certainly  he  was  al- 
ways faithful  to  himself 
whatever  he  assumed. 
This  is  a  sign  of  the 
presence  of  genius,  not 
of  its  absence.  In  one 
sense  we  always  have 
the  same  Nijinsky,  as 
Miss  Pamela  Colman 
Smith  has  very  happily 
shown  in  her  drawings 
of  him.  Yet  in  an- 
other sense  we  never 
have  the  same  Nijinsky. 


if  not 
They 


SPECTRE   DE  LA  ROSE 


D 


17 


Nijinsky  9s  Distinction 

WE  must  not  belittle  him  by  merely 
admiring  him  for  his  miraculously 
agile  leaps  and  jumps.  As  I  said  at  the  start, 
dancing  is  not  only  santerie.  There  was  pro- 
bably no  sauterie  at  all  in  the  dancing  of  the 
ancients.  I  am  told  that  Nijinsky  was  much 
affected  by  the  dancing  of  Isadora  Duncan 
when,  some  years  ago,  she  appeared  in 
St.  Petersburg,  and  I  can  well  believe  it,  for 
there  was  manifested  in  her  at  her  best  what 
was  probably  the  supreme  object  of  religious 
dancing—and  all  ancient  dancing  was  re- 
ligious— the  training  of  the  body  to  the  point 
of  making  it  docile  to  the  rhythm  of  the  soul. 
There  are  many  young  men  in  the  Russian 
ballet  who  dance  excellently  with  their  bodies, 
even  if  they  cannot  leap  as  high  as  Nijinsky, 
but  what  really  separates  him  from  them  is 
the  fact  that  he  dances  not  only  with  his 
body,  but  with  his  soul.  Unfortunately  this 
expression  is  often  used  lightly  to  mean 
merely  "with  enthusiasm."  But  it  can  be 
used  in  a  graver  sense,  and  it  is  in  that  sense 
that  I  use  it. 


LE  CARNAVAL 


Nijinsky  Always  a  Dancer 

SO  free  and  yet  so  disciplined!"  said 
someone  of  Nijinsky' s  dancing.  It  was 
a  very  good  criticism.  But  I  like  even  better 
these  words  from  a  French  appreciation  by 
M.  Charles  Meryel:  "We  should  not  begin 
by  praising  him  for  his  prodigious  physical 
ability  for  leaving  the  ground.  Let  us 
think  first  of  his  power  of  evoking,  through 
the  means  of  a  human  body  in  movement, 
a  sort  of  beautiful  dream,  of  his  power  of 
subjugating  his  material  appearance  so  that 
he  becomes  a  visitation  divine  and  almost 
immaterial. "  I  remember  in  this  connection 
something  that  was  said  to  me  by  Christopher 
St.  John  after  <£Les  Sylphides"  :  "This  gives 
us  a  conception  of  what  our  glorified  bodies 
after  the  Resurrection  will  be  like,  the  same 
bodies,  but  spiritualized  and  agile ! '  I 
thought,  'This  is  too  much!"  and  laughed 
at  an  excess  of  enthusiasm !  But  the  French 
writer  and  the  English  one  were  both  ex- 
pressing the  same  idea. 

Whatever    his    ro/ey    the    young    Russian 
dancer  projects  an  interior  emotion  which  has 

20 


LE  CARNAVAL 


Nijinsky  Always  a  Dancer 

in  it  all  the  force  of  spontaneity,  but  is  at  the 
same  time  conscious  and  considered.  As  an 
actress,  that  has  always  been  my  ideal  of 
expression.  But  actors  express  emotions;  it 
is  generally  their  duty  to  realize,  in  fact,  to 
recall  a  man.  Nijinsky  never  recalls  human 
experience,  never  suggests  the  passions  of 
mankind.  He  is  always  the  dancer.  Now 
the  miming  of  ordinary  ballet-dancers  has 
often  in  the  past  seemed  to  be  more  than  a 
little  ridiculous.  Love  and  joy  and  pleasure, 
pain  and  hate  and  death — how  could  they 
be  simulated  by  pirouettings,  posings  and 
posturings?  Did  I  reject  them  as  absurdly 
unconvincing  because  I  did  not  understand 
the  language  of  choreography?  I  think  I 
was  alienated  because  I  had  never  heard  the 
language  spoken  well.  I  am  sure  now  that 
it  can  be  infinitely  expressive,  but  the  better 
it  is  spoken  by  the  dancer's  body  the  less  it 
will  resemble  the  expression  of  mortals.  I 
could  never  call  Nijinsky  a  good  actor.  I 
can,  and  do,  call  him  a  great  dancer. 


22 


LE  CARNAVAL 


The  Dance  Poems 

IT  has  been  said  that  the  Russian  ballet 
makes  a  vivid  and  brutal  appeal  to  the 
senses,  and  certainly  there  is  some  truth  in 
this  as  regards  the  ballets  of  which  the  artist 
Bakst  is  the  guiding  spirit.  The  old  saying 
that  you  cannot  see  the  wood  for  the  trees 
may  be  borrowed  to  express  a  criticism.  You 
cannot  see  color  for  the  colors  in  some 
Bakst  ballets.  Yet  even  Bakst  sometimes 
helps  to  aid  that  impression  of  a  visitation 
divine  which  Nijinsky  in  his  own  person 
produces.  You  will  see  that  Miss  Pamela 
Colman  Smith  has  given  what  some  may  think 
a  disproportionate  amount  of  space  to  her 
studies  of  <c  Les  Sylphides,''  'Le  Carnaval," 
and  "Le  Spectre  de  la  Rose.""  I  think  she 
was,  perhaps  unconsciously,  more  strongly 
attracted  by  these  three  dance  poems  (for 
dance  poems  they  should  be  called  rather 
than  ballets)  because  of  their  greater  wealth 
in  the  immaterial. 


'H 


LES  SYLPHIDES 


Les  Sylphides 

SOME  of  the  Russian  ballets  take  a  material 
story  and  treat  it  in  terms  of  the  dance. 
But  what  story  is  there  in  "  Les  Sylphides"  ? 
Even  the  programme,  seldom  at  a  loss  for  a 
synopsis,  has  never  tried  to  tell  us  what  it 
is  all  about.  We  hear  preludes  and  waltzes, 
nocturnes  and  mazurkas  by  Chopin,  and  hear 
them  orchestrated  audaciously,  but  for  the 
most  part  successfully,  by  distinguished  Russian 
composers.  We  remember  that  when  we 
heard  these  lovely  Chopin  pieces  on  the  piano, 
interpreted  by  a  Paderewski  or  a  Pachmann, 
we  had  our  mental  dreams;  we  saw  things, 
but  not  with  our  eyes.  When  the  curtain 
rose  on  "Les  Sylphides"  we  were  asked  to 
make  our  imagination  abdicate  its  rights,  to 
put  away  the  films  of  that  little  individual 
cinematograph  which  we  had  made  with 
closed  eyes.  The  demand  may  have  seemed 
impertinent  to  those  who  love  the  interior 
visions  given  by  musical  sounds  better  than 
the  most  beautiful  spectacle  that  the  theatre 
has  ever  presented.  But  "Les  Sylphides" 
had  not  progressed  far  before  we    ceased    to 

26 


e 


LES  SYLPHIDES 


Les  Sylphides 


be  worried  by  the  antagonism  between  dreams 
and  stage  pictures.  The  grace  of  those  im- 
material white  figures,  Victorian  just  so  far 
as  Chopin  is  Victorian,  became  one  with  the 
grace  of  the  music.  Perhaps  the  rhythm  of 
the  music  has  never  been  better  perceived 
than  through  these  well-ordered  movements 
designed  by  Fokine.  The  appearance  of 
Nijinsky  as  a  kind  of  dream  Alfred  de  Musset 
in  a  romantic  fair  wig,  and  dressed  in  black 
and  white,  among  the  impalpable  Sylphides 
was  both  inexplicable  and  inevitable.  When 
he  danced  he  seemed  almost  to  play  Chopin 
with  his  feet,  so  perfect  was  his  time.  His 
steps  seemed  to  be  the  symmetry  of  the  music 
— in  fact  its  rhythm,  for  the  rhythm  of  music 
is  symmetry  in  motion.  And  when  he  merely 
walked  about  with  outstretched  arm,  he  re- 
called Ruskin's  allusion  to  man  "in  erect  and 
thoughtful  motion,"  to  'the  great  human 
noblesse  of  walking  on  feet."  But  it  is  time 
we  cried  "place  aux  dames!"  Miss  Pamela 
Colman  Smith  has  well  transfixed  the  bound- 
ing motion  of  Nijinska  (sister  to  the  "centre 

28 


LES  SYLPHIDES 


piece  of  the  mosaic")  in  the  Mazurka;  and 
the  names  of  Karsavina,  Schollar,  Will  and 
Kovalewska  excite  happy  memories  of  this 
romance  of  style. 


29 


Le  Carnaval 

LE  CARNAVAL,"  the  second  of  the 
dance  poems  which  have  inspired  Miss 
Pamela  Colman  Smith,  is  equally  romantic, 
but  not  in  the  pensive,  twilight  manner  of 
tc  Les  Sylphides,"  with  its  vague  suggestion  of 
mysterious  grief.  Everything  in  "Carnaval" 
is  joyous  and  i?isouciant — except  perhaps 
poor  Bolm  as  Pierrot,  the  unhappy  dupe 
of  Nijinsky-Arlecchino's  teasing  pranks. 
Bakst's  scene,  with  its  plain  blue  curtains  and 
two  absurd  uncomfortable  Victorian  sofas, 
prepares  us  for  the  Russian  interpretation 
of  Schumann's  music,  before  the  peg-top 
trousered  and  crinolined  corps  de  ballet  have 
made  their  appearance.  Until  I  saw  '  Le 
Carnaval,"  although  I  had  realized  that  the 
art  of  the  Russians  was  not  narrow  or  local, 
and  that  they  could  dance  in  several  languages, 
I  fear  I  had  not  credited  them  with  humor. 
The  true  comic  spirit  (which  makes  us  smile, 
not  laugh  in  the  manner  so  offensive  to  Mr. 
Bernard  Shaw)  rules  this  delicious  episode, 
which  is  a  setting  of  Schumann's  music  in  the 
way  that  music  can  be  a    setting   of  words, 

30 


LE  CARNAVAL 


Le  Carnaval 


completing   their    message    and    intensifying 
their  significance. 

For  the  first  time  I  will  use  the  word c  'acting' ' 
in  connection  with  the  Russian  ballet.  The 
comedy  in  '  Le  Carnaval"  is  of  a  very  high 
order.  The  story  is  interpreted  more  through 
genuine  pantomime  than  through  dancing, 
which  perhaps  accounts  for  the  popularity 
of  this  particular  ballet  with  us  English,  who 
still  understand  the  nature  of  good  acting 
better  than  the  nature  of  good  dancing, 
although  we  are  at  the  present  time  much 
attracted  by  dancing.  A  real  note  of 
freakish  farce  is  in  this  'Carnaval.'"  The 
dancing  itself  is  freakish.  It  is  the  simplest, 
silliest  thing!  A  bit  of  fun — yet  to  give  us 
this  bit  of  fun  what  serious  work  was  needed ! 
The  grave  young  Nijinsky  is  transformed 
into  a  mischievous  child ! 


32 


LE  CARNAVAL 


The  Corps  de  Ballet 

T  NOTICED  in  "Carnaval"  the  individual 
1  work  done  by  each  individual  of  the  corps 
de  ballet,  yet  always  done  in  such  a  way  as 
to  contribute  to  the  harmonious  effect  of  the 
whole.  The  Pierrot  (Bolm),  the  Harlequin 
(Nijinsky) ,  the  Columbine  ( Karsavina) ,  played 
the  leading  parts  incomparably,  but  that  was 
not  surprising.  It  was  far  more  surprising 
to  see  in  every  member  of  the  ballet  the 
talent  of  a  "star."  They  were  not  there  just 
to  wear  their  1860  costumes  well  and  to 
form  themselves  into  mechanical  groups. 
The  entire  corps  vibrated  with  life,  did  their 
full  share  in  the  dancing  and  miming.  They 
never  appeared  to  be  waiting  for  an  oppor- 
tunity for  distinction ;  they  were  content  to 
distinguish  themselves. 


LE  CARNAVAL 


Le  Spectre  de  la  Rose 

WHAT  would  a  dramatist  make  of 
Gauthier's  little  idyl  of  the  vision 
of  the  Rose?  What  would  an  actor  and 
actress  make  of  it  if  it  could  be  dramatized? 
I  am  afraid  to  answer  these  questions. 
Fortunately  they  need  not  be  answered,  as 
no  dramatist  now  will  be  fool  enough  to 
rush  in  where  dancers  have  trodden  on  such 
light  feet.  ("The  beautiful  is  light.  All 
divine  things  run  on  light  feet. "J  A  young 
girl  returns  from  a  ball.  She  sinks  into 
a  chair  and,  kissing  the  rose  in  her  hand, 
which  reminds  her  of  the  evening's  innocent 
pleasure,  she  falls  asleep.  She  dreams  that 
the  rose  comes  to  life  and  invites  her  to 
dance  with  it.  She  dances  in  her  dream. 
(Does  she  see  the  rose,  1  wonder,  or  is  it 
invisible  to  her  while  visible  to  us?)  She 
knows  a  joy  in  which  there  is  no  fatigue, 
a  love  in  which  there  is  no  threat  to  her 
virginity.  The  phantom  rose  disappears. 
She  wakes.  The  real  rose  is  at  her  feet 
where  the  dream  rose  had  lain  for  a  moment. 
She  picks  it  up  and  kisses  it  again,  poor  little 
faded  and  finite  sign  of  a  fresh  infinite  thing 
which  has  shown  itself  for  a  moment  and 
passed  out  of  earth's  tiny  room. 

36 


SPECTRE  DE  LA  ROSE 


^4  Paradox 

IT  is  one  of  those  paradoxes,  of  which  the 
Russian  ballet  is  rich  in  examples,  that 
the  music  of  this  fragile  little  poem  should 
be  Weber's  "Invitation  a  la  Valse,"  robustly 
orchestrated  by  Berlioz.  I  can  imagine  how 
sickly  and  pale  specially  written  music  might 
have  been !  The  healthy,  strong  melody,  the 
sound,  marked  rhythm  help  to  create  that 
sense  of  the  impossible  which  is  the  abiding 
impression  o\  the  phantom  of  the  rose.  How 
this  music  pulsates !  Its  deep  expectant  breath- 
ing increases  one's  sensation  that  we  are  all 
dreaming — dancers  and  audience  too.  Tamar 
Karsavina,  who  in  other  roles  shows  a  nervous 
force,  a  tragic  power,  a  strange  and  luring 
grace  which  account  even  better  than  her 
dancing  for  her  triumphant  prominence,  is  so 
gentle,  so  modest,  so  suppliant  in  the  "Spectre 
de  la  Rose,"  that  she  becomes  the  incarnation 
of  snow-white  youth,  dreaming  of  a  heavenly 
lover.  And  Nijinsky  becomes  the  spirit  of 
that  dream.  I  feel  sorry  for  that  young  girl, 
who  perhaps  will  wake  next  day  in  that  queer 
Bakst  bedroom,  and  think  of  the  partner  who 

38 


SPECTRE  DE  LA  ROSE 


A  Paradox 

gave  her  the  rose,  not  of  the  Rose  itself,  who 
came  to  her  as  virginal  as  the  thought  which 
summoned  him.  I  don't  like  the  idea  of  the 
remembrance  of  an  ordinary  flirtation  at  a  ball 
walking  in  at  the  door  of  that  room,  out  of 
whose  window  the  mystical  figure  of  the  Rose 
flew  forth  into  the  night,  which  was,  I  am 
sure,  day  to  him ! 

Brutal  Scheherazade 

THE  Russian  dancers  may  reasonably  pride 
themselves  on  their  versatility.  In  their 
seven-leagued  ballet  shoes  they  travel  all  over 
the  world,  and  beyond.  They  bound  easily 
from  ancient  Greece  to  a  Caucasian  camp, 
from  the  East  of  a  thousand-and-one  nights 
to  a  legendary  country  invented  for  their 
playground.  It  really  requires  astonishing 
mental  activity  to  follow  them  with  pleasure 
from  ctLe  Spectre  de  la  Rose"  to  "Scheher- 
azade." A  symphonic  poem  of  Richard 
Strauss  after  a  plain-song  hymn,  or  Wagner 
after  Mozart,  could  not  be  a  greater  shock  to 

4o 


SCHEHERAZADE 


the  system.  Everything  in  Scheherazade ' ' 
suggests  violence  and  horror.  Bakst's  palace 
was  built  for  dreadful  deeds;  no  one,  I  am 
sure,  could  ever  feel  safe  in  it.  Its  color 
makes  it  vibrate  on  its  foundations,  if  indeed 
it  has  any  foundations.  There  are  bad  dreams 
as  well  as  good  ones,  and  the  dream  quality, 
on  which  I  have  insisted,  so  far,  as  the  special 
beauty  of  these  Russian  ballets  and  mimed 
poems,   is  present  in      Scheherazade. "     The 

41 


Brutal  Scheherazade 


strange  thing  is  that  this  nightmare,  in  which 
sensuality  and  cruelty  are  the  only  emotions 
evoked,  has  a  paradoxical  vein  of  delicacy 
running  through  it.  There  is  something 
almost  childlike  in  the  wiles  by  which  the 
Sultan's  wives,  when  their  lord's  back  is  turned, 
induce  the  Master  Eunuch  to  liberate  the 
slaves  for  their  pleasure.  The  infantile  joy- 
ousness  with  which  the  dark-skinned  youths 
rush  from  their  silver  and  gold  cages  on  their 
loves  and  on  their  impending  doom  has  an 
element  of  pity.  The  whirligig  dance  which 
follows  expresses  exactly  the  happiness,  which 
is  short,  sharp  and  sudden,  but  over  which 
destiny  hangs,  and  for  which  there  is  no 
mercy.  And  all  the  time  in  this  riot  of 
color,  this  orgy  of  animation,  we  never  lose 
sight  of  the  negro  who  is  the  chosen  of 
the  Sultan's  favorite,  the  negro  who  half  an 
hour  ago  in  another  world  was  the  phantom 
Rose!  "His  arms,  which  but  now  were 
waving  invisible  garlands  in  the  serene  air, 
are  ready  to  coil  round  their  prey  in  a  ser- 
pentine embrace.     The  lips    which  gave  the 

42 


SCHEHERAZADE 


Brutal  Scheherazade 


innocent  kiss  of  naive  youth  are  now  twisted 
in  the  spasms  of  desire."  Nijinsky  in  c 'Sche- 
herazade" is  not  the  incarnation  of  evil,  but 

its  spirit His  ghastly  pallor  is  terrible. 

Really  he  seems  to  turn  white  under  his 
black  skin. 


SCHEHERAZADE 


44 


SCHEHERAZADE 


Tamar 

"npAMAR"  is  another  pleasant  little  ballet 
of  barbarity,  in  which  Karsavina,  as 
one  of  those  avid,  fatal  heroines,  in  the 
interpretation  of  whose  serpentine  passions 
she  is  always  fine,  lures  lovers  to  her  high 
tower,  and,  in  the  manner  of  the  Chinese 
Empress,  makes  death  the  penalty  of  an  hour 
of  her  love.  The  execution  is  summary, 
the  unfortunate  lover  being  hurled  out 
of  the  window  by  muscular  members  of 
Tamar' s  suite.  In  "Tamar"  Adolph  Bolm, 
who  was  I  think  the  first  Russian  male  dancer 
to  appear  in  England,  makes  a  magnificent 
entrance.  Miss  Pamela  Colman  Smith's 
drawing  gives  a  very  vivid  impression  of  the 
effect  produced  by  the  first  appearance  on 
the  scene  of  the  Lover  and  his  companions. 
Here  is  a  very  good  example  of  the  amazing 
influence  that  the  color  and  shape  of  mere 
garments  can  have  on  the  imagination.  Those 
silent,  black-coated,  black-hatted  men,  their 
faces  muffled  in  concealing  scarfs,  seem  to 
have  come  from  far,  from  very  far.  I  feel 
that  their  horses  below  are  in  a  sweat,  that 
they  have  been  riding  furiously  at  the  summons 
of  a  force  which  their  fresh  and  ardent  youth 
could  not  resist !  Poor  frenzied  man !  What 
is  his  secret?  Why  has  he  come  here  to  see  love 
through  a  veil  of  blood — blood  which  is  his  own? 

46 


TAMAR 


Prince  Igor 


AT  the  head  of  the  Polovtsien  warriors  in 
the  dances  from  Borodin's  opera  "Prince 
Igor,"  Bolm  has  to  dance  as  well  as  to  mime, 
and  very  splendidly  and  fiercely  he  dances 
with  his  bow.  This  "Prince  Igor"  ballet 
lasts  only  a  few  minutes,  but  in  those 
minutes  are  crowded  enough  energy,  excite- 
ment, lightning  swift  successions  of  different 
movements,  true  healthy  barbarity  (not  the 
barbarity  of  decadence),  and  splendid  music 
to  take  away  all  words,  all  thoughts,  but 
,l wonderful"  !  But  those  "Prince  Igor" 
dances  ought  never  to  have  been  given  with- 
out their  accompanying  songs.  It  has  been 
the  custom  lately  to  leave  out  the  singing, 
one  of  those  omissions  that  matter. 

NOTE:  An  omission  of  mine  that  matters  is  that  I 
have  recalled  "Prince  Igor"  without  mentioning  the 
name  of  Sophia  Feodorova,  who  holds  her  own  in 
astounding  feats  of  agility,  as  in  fiery  spirit  with  the 
adolescents  in  whose  evolutions  she  participates.  The 
girl  is  a  wonder  at  this  man's  work! 


48 


PRINCE  IGOR 


Pavilion  (T ^4rmide 

IN  this  ballet,  in  the  style  of  the  French 
ballets  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  there 
is  less  distinction,  I  think,  than  in  the  others 
from  which  Miss  Pamela  Colman  Smith  has 
derived  her  pictures.  The  costumes  and 
scenery  are  "designed  by  Benois,"  but  any 
one  with  a  knowledge  of  the  theatre  and  a 
Racinet  at  hand  could  have  done  the  same 
sort  of  thing.  And  yet  as  I  write  this  1 
know  I  should  make  the  reservation  of  that 
"life"  which  the  Russians  know  how  to 
breathe  into  everything.  What  I  mean  is  that 
Benois  gives  us  no  new  creation.  Karsavina's 
bird-like  grace  in  her  eighteenth-century  guise 
is  captivating  (oh,  that  this  talented  little 
dancer  had  more  music  in  her,  and  did  not 
dance  always  a  fraction  off  the  beat!),  and 
Nijinsky  as  a  wholly  unnecessary  slave  in 
white  satin  gives  a  wonderful  exhibition  of 
dancing  in  the  style  of  the  original  Ballon 
who  danced  at  the  opera  in  Paris  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  gave  his  name 
to  the  kind  of  classical  dancing  which  con- 
sists in  elevation. 

5° 


LES  BOUFFONS 

NOTE:  Bolm  as  the  lover  looks  very  like  one  of  Louis 
XIV.'s  sons,  and  mimes  perfectly.  I  like  the  "pas  de 
trois"  (the  music  of  this  ballet  by  Tscherepnin  is  fas- 
cinating), but  I  liked  it  better  when  it  was  originally 
given  at  the  Coliseum  as  an  extract,  and  danced  by 
Kosloff,  Karsavina  and  Baldina.  Our  spirited,  bound- 
ing Nijinska  has  not  got  the  eighteenth-century  style. 
Oh,  I  must  not  forget  those  dear  Bouffons!  Their  little 
dance  alone  makes  "Pavilion  d'Armide"  worth  while. 


Narcisse 

THE  last  drawing  in  this  book  is  of  Nijinsky 
as  Narcisse,  and  if  Narcisse  had  been  apas 
seul  by  Nijinsky  I  am  sure  that  there  would 
have  been  more  to  praise  in  it.  For  once,  the 
mosaic  was  all  wrong,  and  so  the  centre  piece 
could  not  be  all  right.  I  have  read  enthusiastic 
accounts  of  "L'Apres-midi  dun  Faune,"  which 
Nijinsky  himself  arranged,  making  Debussy's 
music  the  vehicle  for  a  display  of  Greek  poses, 
and  from  Nijinsky' s  personal  performance  in 
"Narcisse"  I  believe  it  to  be  possible  that  he 
has  succeeded  in  doing,  in  "L'Apres-midi  dun 
Faune, ' '  what  Bakst  failed  to  do  in  "Narcisse. ' ' 
When,  at  the  end  of  the  ballet,  that  colossal 
stage  narcissus  was  jerked  up  from  the  stage 
pool,  and  the  limelight  was  turned  on  it,  I 
regretfully  saw  in  that  light  a  limitation  in  the 
Russian  art.  They  could  not  interpret  the 
tranquil  repose,  the  immanent  beauty  of  Greek 
ideas.  The  whole  treatment  of  the  exquisite 
story  of  the  youth  who  fell  in  love  with  his 
own  beauty,  and  was  drowned  seeking  to  come 
near  its  reflection,  was  heavy-handed,  even  a 


52 


NARCISSE 


Narcisse 

little  barbarous  and  ugly.  And  all  the  grave 
movements  imprisoned  in  stone  and  marble 
by  the  sculptors  of  ancient  Greece,  all  the 
joyous  silhouettes  on  Greek  vases,  seemed  to 
remain  remote,  and  secure  from  the  conquest 
of  the  devouring  Russian,  restlessly  seeking 
material  for  his  ballets  in  all  nations  and  all 
times.  I  had  a  sudden  seizure  of  distrust;  it  was 
as  though  the  disdain  of  the  Greek  had  sapped 
the  foundations  of  my  belief  in  the  justness  of 
the  praises  lavished  on  the  new  dance;  but 
then  memories  of  gestures,  colors,  bounding 
movements,  freedom  of  expression  given  by 
perfection  of  technique,  came  crowding  pell- 
mell  into  my  mind.  The  frown  on  a  cold 
marble  forehead  could  not  extinguish  my 
joy  in  the  flame  of  life  which  burns  so 
ardently  in  the  work  of    the   Russian  ballet. 

ELLEN  TERRY. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


llp!B  Ml 


WAR  2  4 


MAY  1  7  1S| 


RECEIVED 


55 


JAN     S  ^56a.m 


H  19BS 


A9$8 


9^ 
EG  2  7  1961 


TWO 


RECD  LD-UM 


5  VO-URt 


^1980 

MAR  1  8  mo 


ore 


0£<wa 


LD 


»    AUG      6,975^ 
1^4  T  ER  LI  BR  aUjVKO^  N  S 

JUN  25  1975 


WEEKS  FROM  DATE  OF  fjtECEIPTj 

W/1 8LE 


^U-\tN^c^rvi(U^<v 


Form  L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


I  III  II  1 1 1  I    I 
158  00163   1455 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  170  264    4 


